Information Processing Apparatus, Information Processing Method, and Computer Program Product

1. An information processing apparatus comprising: a print-log database that stores therein a print log of data printed; a view-log database that stores a view log of data; a calculating unit that refers to the print log to check a number of times of printing the data and the view log to check a time when the data was last updated or generated, and calculates an importance of the data based on calculation criteria including the number of times of printing and an elapsed time since the data was last updated or generated; a storing unit that stores the importance of the data in an importance database; and a searching unit that searches for data satisfying a search condition input by a user and sorts a plurality of search-result data obtained by the search based on the search condition input by the user and the importance of the data for each of the search-result data stored in the importance database, wherein each of the search-result data is assigned with a sort value and the plurality of search-result data is sorted based on an order of the sort values, and the searching unit adjusts the sort values for the search-result data based on the search condition input by the user and the importance of the data stored in the importance database, and sorts the search-result data based on the adjusted sort values, wherein the print log includes a print option setting specified for printing, the print option setting is assigned a print option importance value, and the calculating unit calculates the importance of the data using the print option importance value as part of the calculation criteria.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the calculating unit refers to the print log to check a total number of prints, and determines the total number of prints as the number of times of printing.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the calculation criteria further includes at least one of number of times of viewing the data, number of references to the data, and number of links to the data.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the calculating unit refers to the view log to check the number of times of viewing the data.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the calculating unit changes the calculation criteria for the importance of the data based on any one of authorization to view the data and authorization to print the data or both.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the calculating unit calculates importance with respect to each print page of the data.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the data includes document data, image data, and document data containing an image.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the calculation criteria includes a calculation based on a viewing time of a document stored in the view log multiplied by an importance constant, the data includes a setting of print authorization which indicates whether or not the data is available for viewing but not for printing, and when the data is not available for printing, the importance constant is increased.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the data includes a setting of viewing authorization which indicates whether or not data is accessible only to authorized users, and when the data is restricted to authorized users, an importance obtained from the view logs is adjusted according to the number of users allowed to view the data.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the view log includes information of individual pages of the data that are viewed, the print log includes information of individual pages of the data that are printed, an importance of the data is calculated for each page of the data based on the view log and the print log, and the search result data includes an indication of a page having the highest importance.

11. An information processing method, implemented on an information processing apparatus, comprising: referring, at the information processing apparatus, to a print log of data printed to check a number of times of printing the data; referring, at the information processing apparatus, to a view log of the data to check a time when the data was last updated or generated; calculating, at the information processing apparatus, an importance of the data based on calculation criteria including the number of times of printing the data and an elapsed time since the data was last updated or generated; storing, at the information processing apparatus, the importance of the data; and searching, at the information processing apparatus, for data satisfying a search condition input by a user and sorting a plurality of search-result data obtained by the search based on the search condition input by the user and the importance of the data for each of the search-result data that is stored, wherein each of the search-result data is assigned with a sort value and the plurality of search-result data is sorted based on an order of the sort values, and the method further comprises adjusting the sort values for the search-result data based on the importance of the data that is stored and the search condition input by the user, and sorting the search-result data based on the adjusted sort values, wherein the print log includes a print option setting specified for printing, the print option setting is assigned a print option importance value, and the calculating includes calculating the importance of the data using the print option importance value as part of the calculation criteria.

12. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with computer executable instructions, which when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method comprising: referring to a print log of data printed to check a number of times of printing the data; referring to a view log of the data to check a time when the data was last updated or generated; calculating an importance of the data based on calculation criteria including the number of times of printing the data and an elapsed time since the data was last updated or generated; storing the importance of the data; and searching for data satisfying a search condition input by a user and sorting a plurality of search-result data obtained by the search based on the search condition input by the user and the importance of the data for each of the search-result data that is stored, wherein each of the search-result data is assigned with a sort value and the plurality of search-result data is sorted based on an order of the sort values, and the method further comprises adjusting the sort values for the search-result data based on the importance of the data that is stored and the search condition input by the user, and sorting the search-result data based on the adjusted sort values, wherein the print log includes a print option setting specified for printing, the print option setting is assigned a print option importance value, and the calculating includes calculating the importance of the data using the print option importance value as part of the calculation criteria.